A U.S. soldier who was standing at a guard post at a military base in Iraq was apparently shot in the face Wednesday, the first enemy-inflicted wound to an American service member in Iraq since the start of the latest mission there nine months ago.
The soldier's wounds were described as a "laceration," and he was treated and immediately returned to duty, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday.
"This is the first wound that is a result of direct or indirect fire to American personnel in Iraq since this mission began," Warren confirmed.
The shooting occurred at a guard post manned by two soldiers at the Besmaya Range Complex south of Baghdad at about 3 a.m. One soldier was in an elevated guard post overlooking the security perimeter and the other was on the ground, Warren said.
The ground-level soldier was "looking over a T-wall, they were trying to identify the source of some light that they'd seen," Warren said. "They saw a flash, heard a crack and the soldier who was looking over the T-wall barrier ... received the laceration."
The soldiers returned fire, Warren said.
The injury was minor and may not have been a direct shot. "Uncertain whether it was a ricochet. ... Certainly it was a result of the gunshot," Warren said.
Besmaya is one of three sites where U.S. military personnel are training Iraqi army soldiers. About 100 U.S. military trainers are at the base along with an undisclosed number of U.S. troops providing support and security for those trainers.
Islamic State militants routinely fire mortars into al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq, but officials say that indirect fire has been ineffective and has caused no injuries.
A total of 2,850 U.S. troops are now in Iraq.
Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.
